


Science and Nature

by Anonymous



Category: Battle for London in the Air (Roleplay)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Pairing Roulette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29538609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Charlotte Sterling has a GPA to keep up and a plan for her life.  However, when the new student is assigned to her as a lab partner, things are about to change.
Relationships: Charlotte Sterling/Chalotte
Kudos: 3
Collections: Anonymous





	Science and Nature

Charlotte Sterling was many things: honor roll student, inventor, researcher, avid reader of technical publications. But she was  _ not _ a believer in what might be termed “woo”. Moon-charged crystals, acupuncture, ghost stories, daytime talk show psychics, and anything else that might lie under the broad umbrella of “religion and spirituality” was, frankly, absurd. If it was  _ true _ , she would argue, then why had there not been a peer-reviewed study in a reputable publication about it? 

That was why she was intensely irritated to have been paired with Lottie Marsh for a lab partner. Chalotte was her given name, and Charlotte  _ was _ mature enough to realize that some people’s parents did name their children similar names, but she had been relieved, on the first day of class, to hear the girl request to be called “Lottie” instead. The last thing she wanted was to be confused with the local cottagecore witch. Really, hadn’t flower crowns gone out of fashion back in 2014? Between the messy bun and the scuffed Doc Martens, the pentagram pendant and the drapey black cardigan, the girl could have stepped right out of a TikTok. Charlotte had a perfect GPA to keep up. If this Instagram-aesthetic  _ person _ dragged her grade down, Charlotte would riot.

The lab itself was a simple exercise, something that Charlotte herself had surpassed years ago, but she decided to look at it as a teaching opportunity. She would guide this girl through the lab to ensure that she did nothing to endanger Charlotte’s own grade. The task was to document the growth of sprouting potato plants, one that the experimenters spoke to kindly, one that they yelled at, and of course one that was not addressed for the control. Lottie was a little too excited about the concept, which tracked with her overall attachment to… that sort of nonsense. Charlotte decided to take as much control of the situation as she could by offering to let Lottie do the talking while Charlotte herself took the measurements. Thankfully, Lottie was happy to settle for this division of labor.

“What are you saying?” Charlotte snapped, looking up from recording her initial observations. If she was chanting some kind of spell, Charlotte would lose her mind.

Lottie looked up and smiled. “It’s Cajun French. My family is from southern Louisiana.”

“Oh. That’s… interesting.” Charlotte managed to soften her tone. Charlotte spoke French, of course, but she hadn’t recognized what the girl was saying. Still, if it was such a different dialect, that made sense. “If you’re going to speak Cajun French to the plants now, then you should continue to do that in order to decrease the number of variables.”

“I was planning to.” Lottie turned back to the toothpick-skewered potato suspended halfway out of the jar of water, carefully labeled “KIND” in Lottie’s spidery script. Her murmuring was too faint to make out, but it still made Charlotte’s arm hair prickle.

\---

Two weeks later, after daily sessions of sweet nothings, their “KIND” potato was flourishing. Its vine tendrils were a solid 4 centimeters longer than anyone else’s, and it was putting out some tiny perfect leaves. “CONTROL” was completely average, looking exactly like the rest of the class’s potatoes. The “MEAN” potato, however, hadn’t sprouted at all. It seemed to have withered, the white inner flesh blackening into decay. Charlotte frowned at it, wondering if the chunk of potato they had been given was flawed in some way. The teacher was unconcerned about it when Charlotte asked her, telling her to just finish out the experiment. 

“It’s an exercise in testing a hypothesis and keeping accurate records throughout an experiment, Charlotte. Don’t worry about it. It won’t affect your grade.”

“Thank you.”

“Your other potato is making up for it, anyway!” The woman laughed. “Are you sure you’re not putting fertilizer in that water?”

Charlotte smiled stiffly. As if she would tamper with an experiment in such a way! It wasn’t a contest. “Nothing but kind words.”

\---

A week later, the “MEAN” potato had slipped entirely off its toothpicks and was sitting in a small puddle at the bottom of the jar. Small white fungus sprouted from the decaying flesh. Charlotte had long since given up trying to measure anything about it, and instead merely recorded her observations of its decline. The “NICE” potato was sprouting tiny flower buds from its lush vines, and it was over twice the size of anyone else’s. Something was going on, and it had to be Lottie’s fault.

Charlotte crossed the classroom to stand over her partner’s desk. “Lottie, can I talk to you about our project? After school, maybe?”

Lottie looked up from her green leatherbound journal. “I’m free now.”

Charlotte nodded and led the way back to the table where their potatoes sat. “This is weird,” she said flatly, gesturing to the three glass jars. “What did you do to them?”

“I talked to them. Just like the assignment said.” Lottie smiled.

“No, Lottie.  _ Faye _ just talked to them,” Charlotte insisted, pointing at the adjoining table, where three nearly identical potato plants sat. “ _ This _ is something else.”

Lottie tapped her lips pensively. “I’ll meet you after school. I’ll tell you then.”

“So you admit you’ve been tampering with the experiment?” Charlotte hissed, but Lottie was already walking away. What an utterly infuriating person.

\--

For the rest of the day, Charlotte seethed. How dare Lottie delay explaining herself? It was one thing for their teacher not to dock any points for her interference, but for her lab partner to deliberately manipulate the results was… 

But she would try not to shout at Lottie right away. She would listen to what her classmate had to say for herself, and then she would decide whether or not to shout at her. After the dismissal bell sounded, she hurried back to their science classroom to confront Lottie.

The girl was waiting for her in the classroom with the lights off, which Charlotte already found incredibly irritating. How dramatic did she really have to be? At least there were no candles in a circle around the potatoes or something stupid like that. Instead, it was just Lottie sitting in the dark with her journal. As Charlotte entered, Lottie pulled out a softly glowing jar from her backpack.

“Are you quite ready to explain yourself now?” Charlotte demanded crisply, dropping her own messenger bag onto the tile. The jar was full of… other fungus? Bioluminescent mushrooms? What the hell?

Lottie smiled her mysterious, inoffensive smile. “There are a number of things you need to understand before you leave this room, so please let me say what I have to say before you leave or interrupt me.”

Charlotte waved an impatient hand. “Yes, fine, just get on with it.”

Lottie laid her hand palm upward on the table. “Take my hand please. It will be easier to show you this part.”

Charlotte frowned, but complied. Lottie’s hand was warm, surprisingly pleasant against the cool tabletop, and her grip on Charlotte’s fingers was strong but not painful. Lottie began murmuring in French again, and the tips of Charlotte’s fingers started to grow cold as the flower buds of the “NICE” vine unfurled into little star-like blossoms. 

“What--” Charlotte began, but Lottie shushed her.

“I’m a witch. I haven’t made that a secret. This wasn’t exactly deliberate, but I can’t exactly help it.” She was still holding Charlotte’s hand. “I influence things. It’s my gift. I’m sorry it upset you, but I want you to be able to trust me now. Can you?”

“I… would like to be able to, I think. But magic? Really?” It was a lot to take in. Charlotte couldn’t think of any way that the vine could bloom naturally, so either she was hallucinating or this was real.

Lottie’s smile widened. “Really. Your science is all well and good, but there are more things in the world than you let yourself believe.” She released her grip on Charlotte’s hand, letting her fingers trail gently over her palm. “Do you have any questions for me?”

Charlotte’s hand was tingling and her head was spinning. “So many, but I can’t put any of them into words.” She stood and paced around the table. Magic was real. If magic was real, then what could be accomplished? If magic could be harnessed, if it could be manipulated, then what could she do in the scientific community? It would be groundbreaking.

Lottie reached out and took her hand again. “I can wait.”

Charlotte stared into Lottie’s eyes, mind racing. “Will you? You’re just my lab partner--”

Lottie placed a long finger over Charlotte’s lips. “We don’t have to be. Between your brain and my powers, we could accomplish so much.”

“We could accomplish so much,” Charlotte breathed.

Lottie slid her hand around to the back of Charlotte’s neck, pulling their faces close. As their lips met, stars burst behind Charlotte’s eyes and, on the table behind them, the jar holding the rotting potato shattered.


End file.
